A centrist district attorney candidate in Oregon has ousted his incumbent progressive opponent after running on a tough-on-crime platform.
Nathan Vasquez previously served as a deputy prosecutor for Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt. Vasquez won Tuesday's nonpartisan primary after results showed him receiving more than 50% of the vote.
Vasquez, who was backed by several police groups, said in a phone call Wednesday that Schmidt had conceded the election. He was a prosecutor at the Public Prosecution Service for more than twenty years.
“I want to thank him for his professionalism and service to our community,” Vasquez said in a post on his campaign Facebook page. “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the District Attorney's Office, with community partners and with the public to help build a safer Multnomah County for all of us.”
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Nathan Vasquez, left, ousted Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt in Oregon. (Vasquez for DA; Getty Images)
Schmidt took office days before the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and calls for changes to the criminal justice system that emerged amid racial justice protests in Portland and other cities across the country. Other district attorneys who came to power around the same time in liberal bastions like San Francisco and Seattle have since suffered setbacks amid public frustrations over crime.
In general, these prosecutors have supported finding alternatives to incarceration and refrained from prosecuting low-level crimes to reduce incarceration rates and address social inequality in the criminal justice system.
Critics have said such policies enable criminality and risks to public safety.
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Portland, Oregon, right, one of the most reliably blue cities in the US, has ousted its incumbent district attorney, Mike Schmidt, left, with a former Republican in Nathan Vasquez [not pictured]. (Getty Images)
Shortly after he took office, racial justice demonstrations gripped Portland as chaos erupted in the streets almost every night for months. Schmidt announced that his office would not prosecute protesters unless they were arrested for intentional property damage, theft, or the use or threat of force against another person. Interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass were listed as examples of cases his office would dismiss.
Vasquez announced the policy, as well as Schmidt's support for a 2020 voter-approved measure that decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs. Earlier this year, state lawmakers rolled back the law and reinstated criminal penalties for possession of so-called “personal use” amid one of the largest spikes in overdose deaths in the country.
Schmidt supported the move.
A person drops off their mail-in ballot at a drop box in Pioneer Square during the primary election in Portland, Oregon. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
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In his message, Vasquez said he was “committed to ending drug trafficking and open-air drug use while helping individuals connect with treatment, to heal the broken relationships between the Office of the District Attorney to rebuild justice and the community, and to ensure that victims are the first priority. from my office.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Schmidt's campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
